The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping is teaming up with Maersk Broker Advisory Services (MBAS) and McKinsey & Company to provide a service to help small and medium-size shipowners develop viable decarbonisation strategies.
Last July the Danish broker’s financial advisory unit partnered the US-based management consultancy giant to launch a service to help shipowners and operators cut carbon emissions.
Now the not-for-profit decarbonisation research centre, which was set up in 2020 by the AP Moller Foundation to create a shipping sustainability project, is joining the venture.
The Fleet Decarbonization Optimizer service will combine the groups’ industry knowledge and technical and economic analytical capabilities to model bespoke decarbonisation pathways, the partners said.
It will take data points like fleet size and age, vessel specifics and types of operations into consideration to advise on retrofits of energy efficiency technologies, retirement schedules for legacy vessels and plans for newbuildings capable of using alternative fuels.
A four-week pilot project with an operator of a fleet of about 100 ships proved the system was capable of providing “concrete guidance of potential pathways” for the company to de-risk its decarbonisation strategy and investments, said Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping chief executive Bo Cerup-Simonsen.
Based on the result of the pilot the three parties have agreed to start offering the service immediately.
Until now the Copenhagen-based zero-carbon shipping centre has been able to make public its research and modelling tools but has not been able to work with specific companies on guidance, Cerup-Simonsen said.
Maersk Broker Advisory Services and McKinsey reached out to the centre to provide technical research, decarbonisation expertise and tools to support the service they were already developing using MBAS market research and McKinsey’s QuantumBlack artificial intelligence which models ways to increase efficiency and use alternative fuels.
Available research data is to an extent limited by being aggregated and anonymous and uncertainty on future fuels, regulations and targets make it difficult for companies to plan cost-effective strategies, but the guidance can give an initial indication of ways to start moving ahead with energy efficiency measures, fleet renewal or retrofits, he said.
Cerup-Simonsen also stressed the importance of the centre retaining its independence whilst partaking in a commercial venture with MBAS and McKinsey.
“There are some principles that we need to stick to that are not negotiable. We are not going to engage in anything that creates a bias for us, and we don’t want to have vested interest in any particular fuel or pathway,” he said.
“We also need to be extremely professional about how we are using the data that we have received from our partners and customers buying this service.”
The service will be price competitive with the exact cost calculated on a case-by-case basis, he added.
Maersk Broker Advisory Services will be the first point of contact for customers.
Anders Hald, chief executive of Maersk Broker said most companies are hesitant to initiate a decarbonisation transition due to considerable uncertainty on what the future holds.
“The combined knowledge put into the Fleet Decarbonization Optimizer brings forward the best available data to the industry so companies can make well-informed investment decisions and navigate the uncertainty,” he said.
It will provide “tangible solutions in an environment filled with unanswered questions,” he added.
